[Fujoshi Friday] 6 Anime Like Sukisho [Recommendations]

Most commonly known by its fans as Sukisho! and translated into I Like What I Like, So There!, this series would be one of the many BL TV anime series fondly remembered by fans who began to like the BL genre around 2005 or 2006. Adapted from a BL visual novel developed by Platinum Label, Sukisho! follows the story of a high school boy named Hashiba Sora, whose memories of his past are faulty ever since he fell from the fourth floor of the school building. Soon after he was released from the hospital and gotten back to his dormitory, Sora meets a boy identifying himself as “Ran”, his new roommate, who calls Sora “Yoru”. Except the next day, it turns out that his roommate’s name is actually Fujimori Sunao, who was apparently Sora’s childhood friend that Sora never remembered. With this, Sora begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding his own past, Nao’s relationship with him, and the people behind their tragic past.

Sukisho!’s interesting point lies in how, despite being a romantic comedy series, it has a heavy plot and a twist for a darker turn by the end of the series, expected by those who had played the game. Not to mention that it’s very pleasing to the eyes, as it has a lot of really pretty boys who are very friendly with one another. Of course, this sort of appeal is not only exclusive to Sukisho! series. Here we come up with six titles that are similar to Sukisho!

Similar Anime to Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shouganai!

1. Princess Princess

Princess Princess is set in a boys-only school that, in order to boost the morale of their students, implemented the Princess System, in which very pretty boys are scouted, dressed up in various lolita dresses as the school’s Princesses, and work to support and encourage the students in their daily lives. Kouno Tooru, the clueless, beautiful transfer student finds himself suddenly scouted by the merciless student council president to be one of the school’s Princesses. Along with his fellow Princesses, Shihoudani Yuujirou and Yutaka Mikoto, Tooru’s glittering life as a Princess admired by the all male students in their school begins. This series is originally adapted from a manga by Tsuda Mikiyo—another pen name of Zaou Taishi, one of the widely known doujinka and BL mangaka, who also illustrated the widely popular BL series Love Stage!!.

Like Sukisho!, Princess Princess is also set in a boys-only school and therefore included a lot of bishounen characters, and hilarious random shenanigans. Both series would give you a good laugh in every episode you watch. Princess Princess is much more light-hearted than Sukisho!, but it does give you heartfelt episodes filled with bromance, especially with Tooru and Yuujirou. While the series isn’t officially a shounen-ai genre, you can still expect a lot of shounen-ai innuendos and fanservice too. The seiyuu line up is amazing as well, we have not only Fukuyama Jun, Kakihara Tetsuya, and Paku Romi taking care of the three Princesses roles, but the supporting characters’ seiyuu includes Hoshi Souichirou, Kamiya Hiroshi, Toriumi Kousuke, Nojima Kenji and Takeuchi Junko!

2. Angel’s Feather

Angel’s Feather is an anime adaptation of a BL game with the same title developed by BlueImpact. The story revolves around Hamura Shou, a newly enrolled student at Yuusei Academy, who is looking for his younger twin brother. He suspected that Misonou Kai is his missing twin brother who was separated from him when they were little, except Kai has forgotten all about having a twin brother. But their past as princes of the Kingdom of Winfield is revealed once they are dragged into another world after an earthquake—in which monsters attacked them and Shou unleashed a pair of great white wings.

If you like the artstyle and animation of Sukisho!, you would probably enjoy Angel’s Feather cast of bishounen. As it is an OVA with only two episodes, this series doesn’t get to delve very deeply into the characters and relationship developments, but it does offer you heavy plot quite similar to Sukisho!’s. Another point that might be similar between the two series are the protagonists’ characters—both Sora and Shou are good in sports, strong, brave, and really friendly types. Both series also feature a good range of supporting characters, despite Angel’s Feather only having two episodes. Sora’s seiyuu, Midorikawa Hikaru, also voiced Misonou Kai, but he’s not the only one you should be excited for; Angel’s Feather’s cast included Yamaguchi Kappei, Suzuki Chihiro, Miyata Kouki, Kakihara Tetsuya and even Inoue Kazuhiko.

3. Loveless

Based on the manga created by Kouga Yun, Loveless brings its audience into a completely normal world, except virgins have cat ears and tails, and special people can battle each other in the form of words. These people come in pairs: one who would attack, called the Fighter, and one who would bear the pain, the Sacrifice. Aoyagi Ritsuka, who had lost his older brother, met with Agatsuma Soubi, who is not only a close friend of his brother, but also his Fighter, and now has become Ritsuka’s Fighter. Finding out that his true name is Loveless, Ritsuka now has to face the mystery behind his brother’s death, the reality of the world made of battles with words, and slowly explore his relationship with Soubi, both as a Sacrifice and perhaps something more.

Sukisho! fans who loved the darker side of the series would definitely love the premise that Loveless provides. Like Sukisho!, Loveless has a protagonist who only remembers parts of his past, but paints the darker twist of the series with a playful, mostly silly shenanigans that is also heartwarming—Ritsuka’s bumbling attempts to keep his friends and to make memories with them, for example. It is a bit more of a fantasy genre compared to Sukisho! and also has more serious, heart-wrenching moments, but if you like the slightly dysfunctional relationships that Sukisho! gives you with its characters, then you would also enjoy watching Loveless. The seiyuu line-up is amazing too, you’d get to hear Minagawa Junko, Konishi Katsuyuki, Saiga Mitsuki, and even Yoshino Hiroyuki!

Any Anime Like Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shouganai! ?

4. DRAMAtical Murder

Seragaki Aoba lives in the Old Residential District of Midorijima, an island privatized by the powerful Toue Konzern which now harbors a luxurious, utopian facility called Platinum Jail. While Aoba really only wants to live a simple life with his grandmother and his Allmate, Ren, Aoba was suddenly dragged forcefully into a Rhyme game where participants fight in a virtual reality using their Allmates. His attempts to avoid his attackers only brought him to the incidents and rumors where the players of Rib—a game of turf wars—started disappearing, and Aoba finds himself getting involved in a complicated situation involving his childhood friend Koujaku, a strong Rhyme player called Noiz, a leader of a Rib gang Mink, and an odd person who latched onto him named Clear. The mystery might just lead not only to his past, but also something to do with Platinum Jail and Toue himself.

Just like Sukisho!, DRAMAtical Murder is an anime adaptation of a BL visual novel game. Originally created by Nitro+chiral, DRAMAtical Murder’s games do have explicit contents, but the anime is very safe to watch. Both series also deal with a protagonist who only remembers parts of his past. If you like the sci-fi aspects that Sukisho! has, you’ll find the plot of DRAMAtical Murder extremely compelling—though like Sukisho!, the anime’s plot has been rewritten and toned down a lot in order to fit a 12-episode anime. Kisaichi Atsushi, the seiyuu for Aoba, had also voiced Ichikawa Gaku in Sukisho!, but other than him, you can also hear Hino Satoshi, Takahashi Hiroki, Takeuchi Ryouta, Nakazawa Masamoto, and Matsuda Kenichirou.

DRAMAtical Murder PV

5. Togainu no Chi

In a dystopian world post-Third World War Japan, Tokyo is now renamed as Toshima and is controlled by a crime organization named Vischio. The cool and silent Akira is a Bl@ster champion—a street fighting game in which Akira participated under the name LOST—and he finds himself being accused of murder and had been sentenced for life-imprisonment. However, the mysterious woman Emma frees him in exchange of Akira participating in a battle game called Igura and defeating its strongest player: Il Re. Now as a participant in an extremely violent game where he has to stake his own life, Akira fights not only to survive, but also unveil the mysteries surrounding the game and its participants.

Another one in the list that was originally adapted from a BL visual novel, Togainu no Chi is one of Nitro+chiral’s most famous works. Like Sukisho!, it has a wide range of characters and almost all of them are really beautiful boys. It has a heavier premise and plot than Sukisho!, especially considering Sukisho! still has the high school shenanigans to balance it, but the dark elements that made it to the anime has quite similar vibes. One of the best points of Togainu no Chi is its soundtracks—every episode has a different ending theme, and the OP is none other than GRANRODEO, whose vocalist Taniyama Kishow is one of the seiyuu casted in the series. Other than him, you can also hear popular seiyuu such as Toriumi Kousuke, Fukuyama Jun, Midorikawa Hikaru, and Sugita Tomokazu!

6. Gakuen Heaven

Gakuen Heaven is a romantic comedy adapted from a PC game with a harem theme first released in 2004. Bell Liberty Academy, aptly abbreviated as BL Academy (yes, yes, we laughed too), is an elite boys-only educational institution that only accepts extremely special and talented people, and Itou Keita is floored when he gets the invitation to attend such prestigious academy when he is just a normal, no-talent student! Once he arrived, though, Keita slowly develops close friendships with the brilliant students of BL Academy—from the “King” in the student council, Niwa Tetsuya, and the “Queen” of the school Saionji Kaoru, the flamboyant captain of Tennis Club Naruse Yukihiko to the cyclist who placed third in the National Tournament Taki Shunsuke. There’s also Keita’s first friend in the academy that he’s most drawn to: the kind-hearted but mysterious Endou Kazuki, who seems to know more about Keita than he lets on. Keita slowly begins to uncover the mystery of why he was invited to this school in the first place.

Like Sukisho!, Gakuen Heaven is originally adapted from a harem BL game that was released in 2002 combines an all-boys school and dormitory shenanigans, and of course, it is filled with pretty boys. Another point that is similar from both series is that while it focuses on Kazuki and Keita as the main pairing, as it originally was a harem game, you get to see the supporting characters’ relationships develop—both with Keita and amongst themselves. You might just end up shipping side-pairings more than you do the main pairing! And if you like the plot-twist that happened in Sukisho!, then you’d probably like the plot-twist and the darker turn Gakuen Heaven has by the end of the series.

Conclusion

As one of the more popular BL games with anime adaptations, Sukisho! is a title that is at the same time nostalgic and pleasant to giggle over when you look back at it now. And like most of the titles we suggested above, the anime adaptation might be unsatisfying for those who have played the games themselves, but for new fans who got into the series because of the anime, it serves as a good introduction and push for them to play the games as well.

What other anime do you think is similar to Sukisho!? Or maybe just want to be all nostalgic with us over some of the titles? Let us know in the comments!

Writer

Author: Roti Susu

Roti Susu here! An aspiring writer who has spent more than half of her life actively writing in various fandoms. Currently living in Japan as a student, I'm a fujoshi who enjoys karaoke, watching a wide range of anime, reading manga and playing RPG games, and am also very much into seiyuu.